Just Dance

Just dance - uninhibited like children, not restrained by social convention.  Just let yourself go.

In last week's Motivation from Moshi, Jane Savoie writes: "To really dance well, you have to let go of the habit of looking at yourself through other people's eyes.  You have to stop that feedback loop. You have to risk looking silly.  To dance you have to take a bit of the athlete in you and mix it with the artist in you. Unrestricted movement, without too much thinking, is the key. Shake, rattle, and roll, and you have a dance!"

I was looking forward to the three events with bands this week, and the opportunity for dancing, but plans changed.


I don't consider myself a dancer by any means, although music moves me and I love to let it take me away.  We can take ourselves too seriously, so I highly recommend you dance like nobody's watching.  Let yourself feel free, lighthearted, and uninhibited...  just have a blast with it!

Monday 6/17 - Joe and Britney were up and out the door at 2:45am but I was too tired to even get up to say one last goodbye.  When Joe woke me again, coming back to bed shortly after 5am, I got up, walked the dog, got the trash to the curb, and got on Facebook to see how Britney's day of travel was going so far.







Constantly checking on my children, I wonder if I am a little like Monita when she is continuously checking up on Stevie.  I hope I don't torment my children as much as Monita bugs Stevie.




At least they don't usually growl and hiss at me.

I did three loads of laundry to get sheets, towels, and some dirty clothes cleaned.  I also boxed up the freshly washed queen mattress cover I accidently took from the RV, and had Joe mail it once he was back out of bed.





Later in the morning the cats were seen sleeping together, so they were able to work things out.

I kept in touch with Britney and was thankful her first flight was on time and she had no problems switching airports in Orlando, except the wait for a taxi had been a bit long.


Just after Britney got to the second airport in Orlando, her flight to Costa Rica had been delayed.  A little later, she had to switch terminals, but she had plenty of time for that, so it was much less stressful for her.

I continued with more chores, like loading and starting the dishwasher, watering house plants, putting clean laundry away, and getting all the other things we had taken on our trip back where they belonged.  I had skipped Dance Aerobics and Zumba but knew I needed to go work out. I was also craving sweets and sleep along with cat time.  This is one of the disadvantages of changing your routine while you travel, it stops good habits and starts bad habits.

When I had gone to the gym, they had put out parking signs and were setting up booths for Mirror Lake Blast.  Two hours later, it was raining and everything for the Blast had been taken down.  It was a disappointment for me, because the night's scheduled band was a great one to dance to.  Dancing would have to wait.

Joe and I about finished off the rest of the spaghetti for dinner and then I took Maggie for a nice long walk, since the skies had finally cleared.  This huge turtle was lurking at the pond when we went by it.




The battle against what ever is eating my orange marigolds continued.  This time, I decided to try the trick with an empty cat food can full of beer.

Joe and I watched a silly movie and I enjoyed the rest of the beer I had left, along with a warmed soft pretzel from Michael's party.  I was in bed before I would have been getting home from Mirror Lake Blast.

Tuesday 6/18 - the beer can trick worked.  It was full of snails and had a few slugs in it also.  The day's rain soon hit, and the forecast was so bad, Abby told us to keep the pool closed all day.








During one break in the rain, I went out to photograph this end of the drainage ditch I still need to re-build better.  I was wondering how much of the large rock the water was running over.  I also got photos of the flooded creek and raised pond level.  This is actually how high it would be if there weren't the two leaks under the spillway.

The cats were bird watching while it rained, and I sat here 'computerizing.'

I went to Zumba, getting some exercise and a chance to dance.  After a quick shower, I headed into town to shop.  During the drive in, the sun had come out, and I was thinking the pool could have been opened.






While at Wal-Mart with my cart half full, I got the call to see if I could go open the pool.  I was glad to, so grabbed oj, milk, and eggs, to add to all the pet supplies, and checked out.  I rushed home and Joe unloaded the food and supplies I had bought while I changed into work clothes.  I got to the pool at 2:55, five minutes before I had promised.

The lounge chairs had arrived and the guys were just finishing loading up the old ones.  The new ones are beautiful.  The power was off because the storm I had driven through to get home had apparently hit a main power line in the neighborhood.  I couldn't get the computer up and running and the pool pump was not going.  Hum.  I helped the guys gather up the trash from the packaging of the new chairs.  Our rascally trash snatcher left finger prints this time.  I skimmed debris out of the pool and the rain started up again.  And then I got the call to close it back up.  Well, at least we tried.

While I ate a late lunch, early dinner, (in my PJs) I got a text from Christie about a trailer lesson Thursday or Friday.  So I decided I needed to go work with Amiga.  Polly took this photo of me doing some ground work.









Since the rain had stopped I decided to take Amiga for a ride.  I kept it at a walk due to the wet conditions of the trail.  Both dogs were thrilled to be out on the trail with us.

Notice in the above photo, Amiga's mane is all on the right side of her neck.

When she shakes her head though, some of it parts and lays on both sides of her neck.  This is better fly prevention for her, and I like how it looks, so I encourage it.

We had a good ride together and I did a little gaiting once back in the barn.

I got back into my PJs when I got home, finished up the fourth load of laundry, and watched TV with Joe while snacking on, you guessed it, popcorn.  Outfits worn today tell of my activities (PJs, gym clothes, nice casuals for shopping, work shirt over swim suit, PJs, barn clothes, and back into PJs).

Wednesday 6/19 - Rain was in the forecast all day, so our pool party was cancelled, (no dancing today) but I went in and opened up the pool to see if we could satisfy customers who were unhappy about the day before.  Well, it turned out to be a decent day.  It never rained on us at the pool, even though it clouded up and looked bad several times.  (Apparently it had rained here at home quite a few times.)

I went straight to the barn when I got off work.  The skies were still threatening, but I saddled up and went for a ride.





Early in the ride, Amiga got very tense and I could not get her past a spot on the trail.  I finally had to get off and walk her.  I later learned that it was right where Chester had critically wounded a baby fawn.

She ended up being nervous the whole rest of the ride.  She pooped half a dozen times and spooked too many to count.  In an effort to calm her down, at one point I let her graze.  Notice what she is munching on.  Clover is a favorite.


Patty was just finishing up riding Zorro when I got back to the barn.  We let the two Pasos chill out at the wash rack.
I did more ground work, with Jan's help, and was glad it has been going fairly well.




I took Joan and her granddaughter grocery shopping as soon as I got home.  (I still had things on my list I didn't have time to get at Wal-Mart.)  Then after dinner, I took Maggie on a long walk.  I wanted to check out the new 'subdivision' going in up near Good Samaritans.  We also walked part of the established neighborhood where I had parked.

Thursday 6/20 - There were thunderstorms overnight and a big one just after I got up at 6am.  I was sitting here in my sunroom when the wind hit.  The trees seen overhead through the skylight were really swaying, so much so, that I got concerned for my safety and went into the living room.  Maggie was so worried, she didn't even eat all of her breakfast.






I had second shift at the pool, so wasn't immediately concerned with the decision about the pool opening.  Monita was trying hard to figure out how to get the jingle bell ball out of the ring toy (video).  She was making quite a bit of noise and very distracting.



As it was clearing off, earlier than expected, I looked out at many sticks and some branches in the yard.  It needed work, my house needed work, and my body needed work, so I decided to get going.









On my way to the gym I noticed some large branches and a few trees down.  There had been one right on our street that was already cleared off (seen below).

When I got to work, Mike said he had the top of one of his trees twisted off and carried 30 feet to the empty lot next door and it was stuck into the ground, trunk first.  The tree guy who came to clean it up said we actually had a little mini twister (tornado).







The end of the section of tree that had come down at the corner of Allen's lot, looked a little twisted and gnarly.

I only had five customers during my shift, and it rained on us twice, so I closed an hour early.  Joe and I walked most of the back nine of Druid and then watched TV together.

Friday 6/21 - This summer solstice day promised to be a beautiful one.  Finally, no rain was in the forecast for the next sixteen hours.  The bird's morning chatter seemed to be happier than usual.












I had a trailer lesson with Christie, so left for the barn at 8:45.  I got the trailer hitched to the SUV all on my own.  Then I prepared it for hauling Amiga.  Joe and I had plans to take her (and the dog) with us on an overnight camping trip (just to Big South Fork) Sunday and Monday.

Next I got Amiga ready, gave her a Prevocox (pain and swelling prevention) in case we worked her harder than usual.  I got her all groomed, put on her leg wraps, and applied fly spray.  Soon Christie arrived and she got to work with Amiga.

After ground work, Christie walked Amiga right onto the trailer.  Amiga didn't even hesitate.  But backing off was still the issue.  She gets so nervous and charges backwards to offload.






Patty was riding Zorro out in the yard and took a few photos and (videos).  The second (video) shows a nice calm backing off of the trailer.  We worked with the butt bar and ramp, closing and opening them, and then drove over to Terry's.  We did a little more work over there and then drove back to Wildwood.  Again a little more work on backing calmly off the trailer was done and we quit on a great note.


I put Amiga in the round pen, backed the trailer between two cars, into a different spot, and un-hitched it.  Then when I went behind it and started closing the top back doors, it started rolling backwards.  I actually put my hands out and tried to stop it.  After rolling about 18 inches, it came to rest.  Shoot, I had forgotten to put a block between the tires.  In my defense, it hadn't had a block when I hitched it up, so I didn't even think about it.  And the new spot I parked it in was not as level.

At last, I was ready to go on a nice relaxing trail ride.  The wild Rhododendron were just starting to bloom.  The creek was running high (video), it was cool in the shade of the trees, and the woods were a wonderful place to be.








I stopped in at the pool on my way home to give Mike a chance to take a break and go get something to eat.  He was working both shifts because Nancy was sick and MJ was out of town.


After my shower I sat here blogging and watched through my binoculars, this muskrat make several trips, harvesting long reeds from the cattails and swimming with them up the creek.  I got curious and went down to see what it was doing with them.  I think he/she was taking them into it's den.  After this photo, it swam several feet and then disappeared into the side of the bank.

My day ended on a great note, with a lot of dancing at the Moonlighters Rock & Roll dance.  Shirley joined me and we sat with three other couples we know.

Saturday 6/22 - I went in to work early to clean restrooms (the only way I could offer to help Mike) since I had been little help to him the day before.  Thunderstorms blew through and I closed and left the pool at 11:30.  After a nap on the couch in the sunroom, Joe and I planned to trailer Amiga into the Glade.  He was going to hike with Maggie while I rode.  Plans did not work out.  I couldn't, for the life of me, get Amiga to go onto the trailer.


After 90 minutes of trying, I finally texted Christie to get advice and she came right out to help.  She (and I) worked with Amiga another 90 minutes.  Christie is the Horse Whisper, while I am like the Horse Shout.  Joe and I got home over four hours after we had left, and we never took the trailer into the Glade.  It had been a long and frustrating afternoon for me, but I was glad we ended on a positive note.

Maybe if I approached this trailering as more of a dance I would have greater success.  If I could learn to relax, move fluently, in a smooth and un-hurried way, it would be so much better.  I wish when riding and doing ground work, the way Amiga and I move together, would look like a dance.